NASA instrument to study Moon's mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time

NASA has selected two new science instruments to study the unexplored areas of the Moon under Artemis. One of the newly-selected instruments will study the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time, the agency said on Thursday.

The two new science instrument suites mark the second selection through NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) call for proposals. Both instruments will be delivered to the Moon on future flights via NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

The newly-selected investigations include:

Lunar-VISE

The Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer (Lunar-VISE) investigation will explore the summit of one of the Gruithuisen Domes, which are suspected to have been formed by a sticky magma rich in silica, similar in composition to granite. The data collected and returned by Lunar-VISE's instruments will help scientists answer fundamental open questions regarding how these formations came to be.

LEIA

The Lunar Explorer Instrument for space biology Applications (LEIA) science suite, a small CubeSat-based device, will provide biological research on the Moon by delivering the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an important model of human biology, to the lunar surface and studying its response to radiation and lunar gravity.

The data returned by LEIA, together with previous data, could help scientists answer a decades-old question of how partial gravity and actual deep space radiation in combination influence biological processes, NASA said.

"The two selected studies will address important scientific questions related to the Moon. The first will study the geologic processes of early planetary bodies that are preserved on the Moon, by investigating a rare form of lunar volcanism. The second will study the effects of the Moon's low gravity and radiation environment on yeast, a model organism used to understand DNA damage response and repair," said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.